Spirit of Service

I don’t think there’s anything more frustrating that dealing with the typical technical support call. In this case, my DSL modem bit the dust. It’s was an ActionTec GT701-WG, which I was not completely thrilled with for starters, but it did the job well enough - until yesterday.

Out of nowhere, the Web interface died. Normally people aren’t on the Web interface to their DSL modem everyday, but I have a script running which queries the status page once every ten minutes. If the PPP or DSL connection is lost for three minutes after first discovery, the script triggers an X10 power switch to reset the modem (complete with a 20 second pause between power down and power up.) A script like this wouldn’t normally be required at all, except that I had two incidences where I lost DSL connectivity while I was at work and needed to obtain files from my home machine and for some reason or another either DSL itself or PPP wouldn’t re-connect. The script had helped me out, according the logs, once since I enabled it.

Back to the current issue: Along with the Web interface giving up its mortal coil, the PPP connection finally dropped as well. DSL was still trained, but that was it. I had a modem which wouldn’t respond to me and no line to the outside world.

The system had worked flawlessly, as I said, for about two years, with the script in place for the last eight months, so nothing had changed on my end for quite some time. I tried connecting several times manually, and managed to get in on the Web interface for about two or three minutes a couple of times each, before its little brain went south again and then wouldn’t even respond to ICMP pings. From that data gleaned, I verified settings and what connection status there was with my ISP, just to be thorough. I tried the hard-reset process - which didn’t work. Finally, the beast simply wouldn’t come back to life at all.

All signs pointed to a dead modem.

Come this morning I gave Qwest a call. It didn’t take long to reach a “technical” support person, I have to give them that, but the rest was an exercise in stupidity. I explained the complete situation, from loss of the Web interface to the lack of reset capability and asked what it would cost to replace the modem. He didn’t answer the question, instead wishing to go through a series of trouble shooting steps. I won’t bore you here with the full conversation. Suffice it to say that after an hour and a half of walking through the various steps on two different computers over this “technical” support person’s script, he came to the thoughtful deduction that the modem wasn’t working correctly and needed to be replaced.

No way! I would have never guessed. How nice it is to have “technical” help like this.

Since it wasn’t under warranty anymore (nothing ever is when it dies) I have to pay for a new modem. They wanted $50 for a refurbished replacement. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll get a brand new modem, thank you, even if it costs more. My biggest problem now is finding a decent modem on a timely basis. Everyone in Salt Lake seems to sell nothing but ActionTec - which I’m not very trustful of. Cisco 678’s are getting harder to find as well.

In any case, I wasted an hour and twenty minutes of my life, appeasing a script reader. Had this “technical” support person just listened to what I had to say at the very beginning, and answered my original question, I’d have that time for my purpose instead of their scripted nonsense.  I suppose I should have been more forceful in my demands, but I would have hoped that I didn’t need to be.

I do know now why Qwest’s motto is “Spirit of Service” - you certainly get nothing very tangible.